Yesterday and today are national holidays in Timor Leste to celebrate independence from Indonesia and Immaculate Conception respectively. This country has the most number of holidays I have known. These celebrations and commemorations can be traced back to history of their independence from Portugal and Indonesia, to massacre, death of important people in their history of struggle, and religious feasts of patron saints. Today is one of the latter celebrations, feast of the Immaculate Conception which is the patron saint of Dili I guess because the Cathedral was named in honor of her.
These long list of holidays made NGOs to decide on their own, which among these will they follow because using the holidays calendar of Timor Leste adds up to almost a month in a year. Trying to analyze the background behind all these celebrations would help you understand the reason behind.
Timor Leste is next to Philippines when it comes to Roman Catholic population. It may have only 1.6 million population but majority of them are Catholics. In fact, Timorese are still practicing their faith the traditional way, which is quite impressive although there are also disadvantages if you would look at the economic side of it. But it's no wonder why feast days of saints are big events to Timorese.
On the history side, Timor Leste has been a colony of Portugal and Indonesia. They were freed from these colonizers which made up two independence day celebrations plus the celebration of its proclamation as an independent country after the referendum. It's funny though that when I asked my colleague why December 7 is a holiday, her response to me was a plain 'it has something to do with Indonesia's occupation of our country mana'. I got curious about the story behind the celebration, so i consulted google since there was no one I can ask to get a good answer. I found the answer from: TL Government portal , specifically the biography section of Prime Minister Xanana. December 7, 1975 was the day when Indonesia decided to invade Dili. Though I got this answer, I am still unsatisfied with it, perhaps I would need to research through personal accounts from locals about the history of December 7 because I cannot understand why occupation of Dili is being commemorated. Although I had the same question on one occasion, and I got this answer: it is part of the healing process from the pain they have experienced during the conflict.
